Overwatch is more popular among women than other shooters. But what is the reason for that?

According to research by Quantic Foundry, Overwatch has a particularly high percentage of female players. Overall, it is estimated that there are nearly 16% women in Overwatch – which means about one per match and team on average. Thus, the female ratio is more than double that of almost all other shooters.

This is mainly because Overwatch features many female, versatile characters. In other games, especially in World War shooters, female player characters are hard to find. There, women are at most civilians to be rescued or the reason for a plausible “revenge” story to be mowed down.

It is also interesting that women do not always have the urge to “protect” others, as the stereotype of the healing women often suggests. According to studies, women prefer to eliminate others in games in a more fantastic way. While men particularly like to use realistic weapons like machine guns, rocket launchers, and grenades, women prefer tools like magic, swords, and bows. This is also reflected in the fact that women tend to prefer a fantasy setting, whereas men more often enjoy SciFi.

As one of the researchers, Nick Yee, puts it:

“Women do not find weapons appealing (even if they have nothing against violence) and consider them a boring and uninspired way to kill someone. Overwatch offers more magic and other alternatives (in addition to the weapons).”

There you have it: Women also enjoy killing, but prefer to do it more creatively.

Does Roadhog’s hook count as “creative”? Some blacksmiths have replicated it – and it is based on a medieval weapon.

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Is Roadhog’s weapon a real threat? A few blacksmiths have recreated the dangerous hook – with a lot of love for detail!

Video games and other works often inspire the imagination of hard-working people who want to bring things from fantasy worlds into the real world. There are many reports of blacksmiths recreating Frostmourne (WoW), the Iron Throne (Game of Thrones), or other weapons.

The blacksmiths from Man at Arms: Reforged have now turned to Overwatch characters. Although most weapons are rather futuristic and recreating a Photon Projector from Symmetra is quite difficult, there are a few exceptions. A prime example of this is Roadhog’s hook, which has long been demanded by fans.

Roadhog’s hook as true craftsmanship

The finished video was published on the AWE me YouTube channel, in which they document the creation of the dangerous hook in detail. And there is also a little “Let’s destroy some evil lemonade bottles” scene at the end.

Roadhog’s hook partly goes back to the medieval weapon of the man-catcher – such as the barbs built into the weapon.

Cortyn says: Even though I find it remarkable how much work and attention to detail goes into the creation of such a weapon, these videos become rather boring with an increasing number. For “people in the know”, it’s certainly very exciting to see which devices and methods were used to grind, mill, enchant, and oil the whole thing – but surely 5 minutes less of the video would have sufficed. Still, it’s cool to see how many details were incorporated.

What do you think of these blacksmith videos about famous weapons from video games?

Reinhardt’s hammer has also been built – but out of Lego!

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Reporting a player for their misconduct in Overwatch often feels pointless. But why doesn’t Blizzard provide feedback?

Update: Jeff Kaplan has now intervened and explained that there was a communication issue. The team is indeed working on providing better feedback for players.

Original report: In Overwatch, you often encounter players who drive you to the brink. Either they behave like a bull in a china shop in (voice) chat, or they give up right from the start because you’re not dancing to their tune (“Switch or I go AFK!”). Those who misbehave can be reported in Overwatch.

But for the reporter, it often feels like the report is just sent straight to the recycling bin through the internet. There is no proper feedback on whether a player’s report actually leads to a penalty. And because there is no real response, some players refrain from making a report at all. “It doesn’t matter anyway,” is the sentiment of many.

Feedback on reports would lead to exploitation

Some users have now asked on Twitter why Blizzard doesn’t simply say, “Your report has been processed, the affected player will be penalized” – or provide a similar response.

Blizzard’s customer service responded on Twitter:

“This would lead to the harassment and false reporting system being abused.”

Many users stated that such a statement is “nonsense” and that it works perfectly well in other games, achieving a reduction in toxicity.

However, Blizzard has cases to support that. The customer service continued to write that it “was part of the old process in World of Warcraft.”

Cortyn states: I find the reasoning extremely flimsy and do not understand why such a system can be exploited. They should just increase the penalties for “false reports” and there should be no issues. Or am I overlooking an important point?

Can you understand Blizzard’s reasoning? Or does it just seem like an excuse to you?

Harsher penalties for quitters will be coming soon.

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